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This book is the ideal companion for anybody researching their family tree. It provides advice and inspiration on methods and problem-solving and helps the amateur family historian understand what successful professionals do to get results, and why we should copy them. Over the course of 10 chapters it examines the various themes that affect the success or failure of all genealogy research. This begins with an overview of common challenges genealogists encounter and continues with an examination of how to both search effectively and find the right documentary sources. Using examples from her own family history as well as client work, teacher and professional genealogist Helen Osborn demonstrates how to get the most from documents, analyze problems, and build research plans. These subjects lead on to recording results, how to ensure relationships are correctly proved, organizing information, and presenting your findings. Although the book deals mainly with research in England and Wales, the skills taught are easily transferable to research in other countries. This book will be particularly valuable to anyone who is stuck with their research, in addition to those who are keen to learn about advanced skills and methods used by genealogists.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you are just starting out on the genealogical trail, all on your ownsome, make this book your first purchase." —lizisthelibrarian.co.uk

About the Author

Helen Osborn is cofounder of Pharos Tutors, providers of online genealogy courses. She has worked as a professional genealogist and historical researcher since 1998 with clients worldwide and thousands of hours of research time under her belt. She is a member of AGRA and has been a consultant on the popular TV series Who Do You Think You Are? Helen has been lecturing, writing, and teaching about research methods for many years and has written three previous books about public houses and brewing history. This is her first book about genealogy.

I am a reference librarian in a public library just west of Boston. I love both working on my own genealogy (never enough time) and helping others to work on their own. I have been looking for a good, current book on methodology for our patrons and myself. For myself, I wanted a book that would give me a broader background in dealing with some of the trickier questions I run across. I stumbled across a reference to this book in one of the journals and got the library to buy a copy for our circulating collection, thinking I would just look through it. I didn’t get very far when I decided to buy my own copy. I ended up reading it cover to cover.

I have found this book to be tremendously helpful. The author takes you step by step along the road to successful searches with her explanations of the research process and what can go wrong. Have you really hit a brick wall or is it just a big bump in the road that you can deal with -- if you understand what needs to be done? She gives you lists where they are needed and her explanations and descriptions are dead on. My poor copy is already filled with "remember this" and "note that" type of highlighting, as well as margin notes. This may sound odd but, when I finished it, I found myself thinking differently. I approached problems with a new perspective and from different angles. I even found it affecting my non-genealogy life. Another proof that this is an excellent book about how to reason your way through apparent brick walls and dead ends.

The author is British and for the most part she uses British records and websites for her examples and suggestions. That said, her basic methodology applies no matter what country you are from.Read more ›

I have worked with the author for over three years now and wish she had written this book sooner. It gives a great overview of proper research methodology for any researcher in any country but that it is written more specifically about UK records and from the point of view of a professional living there, it is very helpful teaching nuances and the ins and outs of how things are approached in those countries. Knowing how to research, the methods, is only part of the equation; knowing the antecedents of the material and how it is approached and stored by its "owners" is a wonderful gift this book helps with too.